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by '81 Hobie 16 Lac Leman. 03/31/24 10:31 AM
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bias in sailcloth #157453
10/17/08 11:40 AM
10/17/08 11:40 AM
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,921
Michigan
PTP Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel
PTP  Offline OP
Carpal Tunnel

Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,921
Michigan
So, laminate sails generally should be made into radial type sails because these cuts align the loads along the fabric such that it decreases stretch. Dacron is used more for crosscut sails because it seems to do better in the diagonal (bias). The reason against radial cut sails is they obviously are more labor intensive to make and have a waste factor of about 25% which is expensive when the materials run 36$ per running yard. This is an oversimplification BUT...
there are new laminates out there that are designed for crosscut sails. They have some fibers that run diagonally across the sail which, in theory, increases it's bias strength and allows for crosscut sails to be made out of laminate cloth.
Anyone have any experience with this, thoughts, suggestions?
It is complicated and outside of the top 1-2% of racers, I doubt it makes much of a difference, but thought I would see. The 18HT I used to sail on had a very fast main (Orig equipment) which was crosscut though I can't remember whether there was a diagonal fiber in there.

Last edited by PTP; 10/17/08 11:41 AM.
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Re: bias in sailcloth [Re: PTP] #157472
10/17/08 01:33 PM
10/17/08 01:33 PM
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 4,451
West coast of Norway
Rolf_Nilsen Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Rolf_Nilsen  Offline
Carpal Tunnel

Joined: May 2003
Posts: 4,451
West coast of Norway
I would say that both regular laminate and dacron will benefit a great deal from a radial cut. Not only in performance but also useful lifetime for the sail.

We built a Tornado main in Maxx Pen09. It was good enough to help us pick podium finishes in the events we sailed with it. I think the cloth was a bit on the light side and would have gone up one size for the T. For the F16s I think it would work well.
I think the fibers in Maxx runs 0/90, 45 and ~60. Cloth layout is important when cutting the panels. If you are going to cut and build sails, working with a cloth like Maxx is a very good option in my opinion. It can be cut manually in some nights if you are so inclined, and it can be glued together quite easily. The sail might not be as stable as a radial cut dacron or laminate, but it is good enough.
We are talking about using a Maxx Kevlar cloth for our mainsails when we launch. It will be interesting to see what difference that makes compared to the Pen09.



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